Finishing touches: More than a quarter of all public schools in Arizona are now charter schools. Some districts have lost more than 20 percent of their students to charters. Guess who's concerned? - Forum

Education Next, Winter, 2001 by Robert Maranto

Relatively few charter secondary schools serve "main stream" students. At the high-school level, parents demand science labs, football stadiums, and swimming pools, amenities that few charters can afford. At the elementary- and middle-school levels, parents want academic programs and a safe environment, and here charter schools are able to compete for conventional students. Robert Stout of Arizona State University and Gregg Garn of the University of Oklahoma found that 47 percent of Arizona charter elementary-school students attend content-centered schools, usually advertising "back to basics" or Core Knowledge approaches that are considered old-fashioned by district schools, Thirty-five percent attend child-centered schools, usually Montessori-based. The remaining schools offer a wide range of approaches, including bilingual, arts-based, and Waldorf programs.

The most striking difference between charter elementary and district elementary schools is their size. Charter schools, with a median size of 110 students, tend to provide small learning communities compared with district elementary schools, whose median size is 590. Charter school principals typically--and intentionally--know all the parents. One teacher-operator said that she initially wanted a school of 200 children, but after a year decided that "130 was actually about right." Another teacher-operator wants enrollment to grow, but by adding one small campus at a time every other year rather than by expanding existing schools. The idea is to maintain school quality and to provide small communities where each child can be a "big fish in a small pond." This is difficult for district schools, which are encouraged to build large schools because of the incentives contained in state funding rules.

Nearly everything done in a charter school has been done at some time at some district school. Yet it is cold comfort to teachers and parents who desire Core Knowledge or Montessori education to know that in some distant county, a district school has what they want. Arizona's free market allows teachers and parents to find or create schools that suit their preferences without moving hundreds of miles, going to expensive private schools, or spending ten years lobbying the school board.

In the clunky, incremental manner of real-world social systems, school choice is improving public education in Arizona. It provides outlets for teachers and parents who are unhappy with existing district schools, and it forces district schools to improve their outreach, provide popular curricular options, and, in some cases, change leadership. It encourages talented teacher-entrepreneurs to realize their dreams, keeping them in the field when they might otherwise have left.

Numbers Tell the Story

Charter schools leave both parents and teachers happier with their
experiences.

Charter School Operators in Arizona                      291
Number of Charter Schools in Arizona                     432
% of Arizona Public Schools That Are Charter Schools      26
% of Arizona Public School Students Enrolled in          7.0
 Charter Schools
Number of Arizona Students Enrolled in                61,000
 Charter Schools
Median School Size
 Elementary Level
 Charter                                                 110
 Public                                                  590
 Secondary Level
 Charter                                                  65
 Public                                                  871
% of Parents Giving an A or A  Grade to Their School
 Charter                                                 61%
 Public                                                  38%
Teacher Empowerment
% of Teachers Saying They Influence School Curricula
 Charter                                                 62%
 Public                                                  25%
% of Teachers Saying They Can Select
Instructional Materials
 Charter                                                 76%
 Public                                                  44%
% of Teachers Saying They Can Set Class Schedules
 Charter                                                 55%
 Public                                                  17%

SOURCE: Author, Fall 2001